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Saturday, June 28, 2014

World Cup broadcasts: The Middle East’s opportunity to miss an opportunity

No matter how entrenched animosities in the Middle East may
be, one principle is upheld by all: never miss an opportunity to miss an
opportunity. The controversy over access to broadcasts of World Cup matches
makes that clear.

Pricing by Qatari entities holding World Cup rights for the
Middle East and North Africa, including Al Jazeera’s belN Sports channel, puts
broadcasts beyond the reach of many football fans in the region. Inevitably,
that is a public issue in a soccer-crazy part of the world. Add into the mix
Arab-Israeli animosity and hostility towards Qatar because of its support of
the Muslim Brotherhood and the issue becomes politically explosive.

In Lebanon, high Qatari pricing for access to World Cup
matches commanded the attention of a Cabinet preoccupied with shielding the
ethnic and religious mosaic from further fallout of sectarian and jihadist
violence in Syria and Iraq. In Egypt, where Qatar is loathed by opponents of
the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera journalists were made scapegoats in a kangaroo
court earlier this week, Qatari pricing policy is the equivalent of scoring an
own goal. belN charges $140 for access to World Cup matches; Egypt’s average monthly
income is $360 a month.

Qatari pricing closed down an opportunity to try to win back
hearts and minds by ensuring that large numbers of people in the region would have
affordable or free access to World Cup matches at a time that Al Jazeera is
under fire for its alleged support for the banned Muslim Brotherhood and has
lost regional market share.

Al Jazeera’s operations in Egypt have been shut down for
much of the past year. Market research company Sigma Conseil reported last year
that the network’s market share in Tunisia had dropped from 10.7 in 2011 to
4.8% in 2012 and that Al Jazeera prior to the crackdown was no longer among
Egypt’s 10 most watched channels. Tunisia’s 3C Institute of Marketing, Media and Opinion
Studies said that Al Jazeera Sports was the only brand of the network
that ranked in January among the country’s five most watched channels.

The beneficiary of Qatar’s political faux pas, Israel, seems
equally incapable of capitalizing on the fact that many in countries that
border on the Jewish state tune into Amos, the Israeli satellite station that
grants free access to World Cup matches.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman for Arab media, Ofir
Gendelman, initially welcomed Arab viewers in remarks on social media. "I
hear that many football fans in neighbouring countries are watching the World
Cup live on Israeli channels. We welcome you," Mr. Gendelman said on
Facebook and Twitter.

Access to a massive Arab audience constituted an opportunity
for Israel to subtly attempt to forge links where peace treaties with Egypt and
Jordan have failed to build cultural and public diplomacy links. Instead, Mr. Gendelman
provoked a torrent of abuse several days after his welcoming comment by publishing
Hebrew soccer slogans written with the Arabic alphabet that he hoped would
prove useful to Arab fans.

Responses by Egyptian fans on social media reflected
conflicting feelings of on the one hand favouring a boycott of Israel because
of the Jewish state’s occupation of Arab territory for almost half a century
and its attitude towards the Palestinians and on the other the desire to take
advantage of the free access Israel grants.

"We are taking what we want from you but after the World
Cup, Goodbye Amos Satellite," said one Egyptian fan on Twitter. "Get
us an Arabic commentator and I will pray for you that you die soon!" said
another. A third asked: "How do you translate: a prayer in Al Quds?" using
the Arabic name of Jerusalem to affirm Arab claims to the Israeli-occupied
eastern half of the city.

Israel and Qatar’s lost opportunity was further evident in
widely circulated conspiracy theories that sought to make sense of the
predicament of average World Cup viewers in the region.

The Egyptian Sports Writers Association denounced what it
said was an "Al Jazeera conspiracy to force Arab nations to watch Zionist
channels." The association’s evidence: Al Jazeera, which is suing the Egyptian
government for $150 million in damages for disrupting its business in Egypt since
last year’s coup that toppled President Mohammed Morsi has failed to take
Israeli channels to task in a bid to force a normalization of relations between
Arabs and Israelis. "We demand all Arabs not to watch Zionist channels,
even at the price of not watching the World Cup," the association said.

Former Al Masri player Ibrahim El-Masri in remarks to Egypt’s
state-owned Al Ahram newspaper asserted that Israel was exploiting Egyptian
poverty. ""Israel is ... targeting poor and badly-educated people,"
he said. El-Masri described free access to Israeli broadcasts as "obvious
propaganda" that was "just the beginning" of a television
strategy designed to "hook Arab viewers."

Indeed, a smarter Israeli approach may just have had that effect,
an effect Qatar could have countered had it approached World Cup matches as a
public diplomacy rather than a commercial opportunity.

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological
University. He is also co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute
for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile